Sheldon Beiste
Shannon Beiste is the current football coach at William McKinley High School who replaced Ken Tanaka. She is portrayed by Dot Jones (billed as "Dot-Marie Jones"). Season Two In Audition, Shannon replaces Ken Tanaka (who suffered a nervous breakdown after the wedding to Emma Pillsbury fell through) and becomes the new football coach. Because sports are considered a bigger money earner than cheerleading and Glee Club, Principal Figgins cuts the Cheerios and New Directions' budgets by 10%. Sue becomes furious at her and Will's budget being cut, so she asks Will to help her "destroy" Shannon. Surprisingly Will agrees, which causes them to become "frenemies." Together, the two of them begin "Operation: Mean Girls" in which the two of them prank and bully Shannon, by ordering a massive amounts of pizza under her name and trying to alienate her as a new member of the staff. This is all done with the hope of driving her to quit her job. Shannon tries to ignore the bullying, which reminds her greatly of her childhood, and instead pushes on with her job. She forces the entire football team to re-tryout, but still offers the team the prank-pizzas when she is forced to buy them. Slowly however, the pranks begin to eat away at Shannon, who finally explodes at Finn Hudson, who asks her if wheelchair user Artie Abrams can try out for football. Thinking that Finn and Artie are trying to humiliate her the way the Will and Sue are, she throws Finn off the team and refuses to let him back on when Finn tries to explain he wasn't trying to be mean, but was instead trying to help his friend. Will soon feels sympathy towards Beiste and realizes that he's been treating Shannon the same way the Glee kids are treated every day. He apologizes and offers to become a friend despite her earlier insult of Glee Club, and she accepts. In Britney/Brittany, she lets Artie join the football team. In Never Been Kissed, Finn suggests that Sam uses Coach Beiste as a way to cool down when he is feeling sexually aroused. This method is soon adopted by other members of the Glee group including Tina, which causes Mike to confronts Beiste demanding she stay away from his girl. Beiste, confused, speaks to Will who reveals the "cool down method", prompting her to quit her job due in large part to the fact she can't stand how no one will give her a chance at the school aside from Will. Will confronts his students, and they admit they had not intended to hurt her, particular as she is the best coach they've ever had. Later Will finds her clearing out her stuff and after a heartfelt conversation in which she adm its to have never been kissed, Will gives her an innocent first kiss. He then takes her to the Choir room, where the boys perform the number, Stop! In the Name of Love/Free Your Mind, which is dedicated to her. Touched by it, she shares a group hug with the boys. In The Substitute, Sue informs Beiste that she is cutting the Football Program to which Beiste replies asking her who her (Sue) Cheerios are going to cheer for. Sue is left speechless and leaves after claiming that she will "answer her question later". In A Very Glee Christmas, Beiste organises Secret Santa but due to a diversion from Sue (Sue told her that she is going to take all these text books to an exorcist) Becky swaps Beiste's tub of names with a tub with only Sue's name. Later on Sue's scam is revealed and Beiste along with Emma and Will confront Sue to which she tells them that she is everybody's Secret Santa and she has legal rights to the gifts. Will checks out the legal rights and when Sue returns to her office the next day, she finds the Football Team taking her gifts to put under the tree for Orphan Children to which Will tells her that because she misrepresented herself, she doesn't have the legal rights. Later, Artie and some other guys from Glee Club ask her to dress up as Santa, break into Brittany's house and tell her that Santa can't give her what she wanted (Artie walking). She tells her a story of how when she was young, she wanted to be like other girls but Santa couldn't do it and so she moved on and ended up being glad that she didn't get what she wanted. Brittany is disappointed and Beiste leaves. She is later seen listening to the Glee Club performance of Welcome Christmas. She too donates to the Christmas Appeal. After the performance, the Glee Clubbers (minus Artie and Brittany) head to the Choir Room to discover Artie walking with an invention called a ReWalk. Beiste is hidden in the hall watching them with a smile, hinting that she was the one who bought the ReWalk. Beiste appears in The Sue Sylvester Shuffle episode where she recruits Rachel, Tina, Mercedes and Lauren to the football team. She also forces the football team to join Glee Club to foster a sense of unity. While speaking to Will about the problems she has with the football team, she lets slip that she's worried that Will might attempt to kiss her again. She expresses relief when he tells her that does not wish to kiss her again. She later suspends the entire football, sans the Glee Club members, because they do not wish to participate in their own half-time show. However, later the football team re-joins together and she takes the titans to a state championship victory. In Silly Love Songs, Shannon takes Santana to the infirmary after she was beaten up by Lauren. In Blame It On The Alcohol Shannon helps Will have fun. After seeing how uptight he is, she takes him to a bar where she goes to a lot. He gets drunk at the bar, and the two sing One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer. This is her first solo in the TV series. She later takes the drunken Will home, and tells Will that they need to stop encouraging these kids to be drinking. Will is drunk, and obviously doesn't take her advice because he drunk dials Emma. Sue would later play this to the entire school. However, Will later does take her advice and gives it to his Glee kids. In Sexy, she is seen eating lunch with Will when Emma protests letting Holly Holliday teach the Glee kids about sex. She giggles at Emma's unintentional double entendre. Season Three In The Purple Piano Project, Shannon supports Will, telling him to give in to continue with the Glee Club. In I Am Unicorn, Will elected Shannon, Emma and Artie to be the musical directors. Shannon says that Rachel is perfect for Maria, because she always wants to meet its objectives, and believes that Kurt is not perfect for Tony because he's very feminine. In Blaine's hearing, she cries with joy. Personality Shannon appears to be a very intense and driven woman, who wants to do whatever she can to train her players into being a formidable football team. However, she has also shown to be very sensitive because of being bullied as a child due to her large size, deep voice, and somewhat masculine appearance. This sensitivity causes her to become petty and easily angered, which she then takes out on those who end up in her line of sight. But it appears that she is not a cruel woman, like Sue is (or at least not as cruel), but instead just wants to be accepted and appreciated. She has French heritage, as mentioned when she spells out her name. She also seems to enjoy music quite a bit, as she can be seen singing along to "Need You Now" and "TiK ToK". Relationships Main Article: Shannon-Will Relationship In Audition, Will apologizes for treating Beiste badly and they become good friends. They are occasionally seen eating lunch together in the faculty lounge, and they have worked together to teach lessons to their students and to counter Sue's scheming. Will gave Beiste her first kiss, though their relationship is strictly platonic. Songs Solos (In A Duet) Season Two: *One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (Will) (Blame It On The Alcohol) Quotations Category:Characters Category:Minor Characters Category:William McKinley High School Teacher